The 54th Annual Grammy Awards Pay Tribute To The Late Whitney Houston

The 54th annual Grammy Awards were handed out in a lavish musical ceremony at the Los Angeles Convention Center in downtown LA on Sunday night and while the focus of the awards show was to hand out awards to the best musical performers of the last year, as decided on by Grammy voters, a portion of the night was devoted to the memory of the late Whitney Houston. Grammy Awards host LL Cool J opened the show with remarks that paid tribute to Whitney’s life and legacy and he shared a personal prayer for and in her memory. Later on in the show, singer Jennifer Hudson performed a powerful rendition of I Will Always Love You in tribute to Whitney. We will hear more about the Grammy show itself a bit later on but, for now, let’s see how tribute was paid to Whitney Houston at Sunday night’s show.

Here is video of LL Cool J’s opening monologue and prayer:

This, I felt, was a very fitting tribute that I’m sure Whitney appreciated greatly … wherever she is out there. While LL took it upon himself to open the show in tribute to Whitney, the “official” tribute that was put together in her honor came a bit later in the show when Jennifer Hudson took to the stage at the close of the In Memorium segment of the show and performed the song I Will Always Love You in tribute to Whitney and the other musical greats who we lost in the past year:

J. Hud’s performance was beautiful and very touching. I understand that she rehearsed this song twice before the telecast on Sunday night and broke down in tears both times. She seemed absolutely intent on getting thru the television broadcast without breaking into tears … at least on camera. You may recall that it was Whitney Houston who presented Jennifer Hudson with her first Grammy Award back in 2008. It seems to me that Jennifer was the perfect person to sing the tribute song to Whitney last night. As I said above, we’ll hear more from the 2012 Grammy Awards a bit later on … but I really felt compelled to share these tributes to Whitney Houston right here, right now.

J.Hud was the perfect selection. She really was. The only two others I’d have even remotely entertained would have been Mariah or Celinè.

Was all very fitting. It’s kind of refreshing in a way. To see Hollywood react so strongly. It restores my faith that they are human. They always act so strong so to see raw emotion like this… Beautiful.

ChristineLA

Jennifer Hudson was amazing. I cannot fathom the pressure and the sheer force of will it would take to walk out on that stage and pay tribute to one of your all-time idols merely one day after they died. Goodness knows how she got through it, I was reduced to a puddle on the the couch who wanted her mommy. Nicely done, Jennifer, I really don’t know who among the living could have done it better.

matilda

Can this please stop being a blog entirely dedicated to Whitney now? Care factor zero.

rOXy

Unbelievable. I, for one, care a great deal about the loss of one of the greatest talents that ever graced the earth. I am grateful to Trent he is sharing the best of the memorial performances with us in real time. You may not care, but a majority of the rest of us ARE grieving. Trent has opened his blog as a place for us to go so we can process our grief together. I suggest that you go away for a few days and come back when you’re feeling more human.

Ashley

There’s always somebody out there who has to be sour when a deeply beloved celebrity passes. Would you be this flip if somebody YOU knew and respected and loved passed away? If somebody dared said “I don’t care” if somebody you admired passed away, I bet you wouldn’t be very happy about it. I don’t care if you care or not. This woman was a mother, a sister, a daughter, a beloved entertainer. She had fans all around the world, and just because you don’t care doesn’t mean others don’t.

@matilda Wow… While the Grammy may restored faith that Hollywood is human, your comment is everything that is wrong with Internet and comments. Cold, heartless and cruel. Grow up and show some respect.

HM.

Amen to that…word for word!!! Please don’t be disrespectful Matilda.

Jeremo

Yeah it’s easy to hide behind a monitor but when you’ll be face to face with the person it won’t be the same

Sandy

I find it odd, that there was one tribute performance while Chris Beatherdown got two. Screw the Grammy’s.

Ariel

i found interesting, that must of the artists that were there, joined the prayer, whitney was truly beloved by her fellow musicians. i still can’t believe it. she was one of the few r&b singer that i loved, her voice was magical.

cutitout

I don’t like Jhud. But it was the best they could do because anyone else who would have been appropriate would never take on such an important moment with so little time. Not to mention, Mariah, Christina, and Celine all are/were too crushed to get it together. Hell, the song that got Christina her contract was a demo of the the Whitney song, “Run to you” Its unfortunate that it happened so close to the Grammys because I would have liked to see all of her protege’s pay tribute on one satage, From Kelly Clarkson, to Leona lewis, etc. So many to name. I guess that burden will lay on the BET awards in a few months. Could be epic.

Lynne

Christna Aguilera sung “Run To You” on I believe the first BET awards for a Whitney tribute/honor as well. :)

J. Hud was fabulous as always. Just wish her performance was longer, but it was sweet and to the point. No over singing, just control.

Gentgiant

Last time I checked, this is Trent’s blog. Don’t like the content, move along. If he wants to speak about Whitney all day, he has every right to do so.

Asha

NOt a fan of Jhud, so changed the channel (for most of the award anyways) Not enough real artist. Just pop tarts.

While I agree that Jennifer is amazing, I think it would have made the tribute just a tad bit sweeter if Dolly would have performed it. Since it was originally her song that Whitney returned to the forefront for us to (re)discover in a whole new and ingenius way.

Lisa

She once was a beautiful woman with a voice of an angel. So sad drug’s destroyed her angelic voice and ended up taking her life. I pray for her family and children

Helena

Wonderful. JHud did a spectacular job.
LL Cool J was such the perfect host this year.